The arc of life
The dazzling and deeply moving Complications in Sue bodes well for Anthony Roth Costanzo‘s stewardship of Opera Philadelphia.
Recent Stories
Broadcast
Werther / Metropolitan Opera
A performance from 1979 starring Alfredo Kraus and Régine Crespin, chosen by Lawrence Brownlee
Streamed February 7, 2026 at 1:00 PM
54 comments
Broadcast
Ariodante / Royal Ballet and Opera
Jacqueline Stucker, Emily D'Angelo, and Christophe Dumaux star in a performance recorded in December in London
Streamed February 7, 2026 at 1:00 PM
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I want you to enter the holy of holies
Das Wunder der Heliane fuses sex with the sacred at a simmering performance at the Opéra National du Rhin.
The 1965 Les contes d’Hoffmann is so overrated
All in all, an ill-advised venture.
By La Grunowa
36 comments
Broadcast
La traviata / Wiener Staatsoper
Xabier Anduaga, Kristina Mkhitaryan, and Artur Rucinski lead a live video broadcast from Vienna
Streamed February 6, 2026 at 1:00 PM
2 comments
Carnegie Hall 2026–27 season: the vocal highlights
Heavy-hitters: the first complete Ring in its history, Tosca with Marina Rebeka, Jonas Kaufmann, and Ludovic Tézier; plus recitals from Aigul Akhmetshina, Nadine Sierra, Jeanine De Bique, Michael Spyres, and more
“I don’t play a wilting flower very well”
Jennifer Holloway, star of Salome at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, talks with Christina Colanduoni about re-launching her career as a soprano and how her Salome is “just trying not to disappear under everybody else’s rule.”
More than a material girl
The vivacious MANON! at Heartbeat Opera makes a strong case for the return of opera in translation.
Any recording of Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny is so overrated
It’s always surprised me how so many performances of the major Brecht/Weill collaborations seem to have zero clue of how to handle either Weill’s music.
By Cornelia
6 comments
Past is prologue
Simon Boccanegra has never felt as foreboding or prophetic as it did at a recent performance at La Fenice.
San Francisco Opera 2026–27
Music Director Eun Sun Kim is at the center of the repertory, and a long Wagner arc is now officially underway
Women’s liberation
Parterre Box highlights two recent Verdi Requiems of interest with a pair of Libera mes from Asmik Grigorian and Anna Netrebko.
The 2018 Macbeth is so overrated
I don’t know if it’s overrated because I don’t think anyone rates it, but for pure party disc joy not much beats this 2018 recording of the original 1847 version of Verdi‘s Macbeth.
By Ben Miller
4 comments
A lady of coarse and vulgar inclinations
A stark, sweltering performance of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk shocks the Komische Oper Berlin.
Nature boy
With Siegfried, the directorial vision of the Paris Opera‘s Ring cycle finally takes root.
This 1955 Eugene Onegin is so overrated
This is the classic Onegin and there’s much to love, especially from Khaikin‘s sensitive conducting and Lemeshev‘s ideal Lensky.
Broadcast
Salome / Kölner Philharmonie
Jennifer Holloway, currently singing the same role at Lyric Opera of Chicago, leads a performance recorded in Köln in September
Streamed January 31, 2026 at 2:03 PM
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Broadcast
Arabella / Metropolitan Opera
A performance recorded this fall in New York starring Rachel Willis-Sorensen
Streamed January 31, 2026 at 1:00 PM
Comment
The best thing I saw in 2025 was Echo 72
An opera about the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics was never going to be an easy task.
A ruckus in Kaunas
Ponchielli goes east with mixed results in I Lituani.
The best things I saw in 2025 were Parsifal and The Monkey King
Both performances moved me profoundly and served as a form of catharsis, ending a challenging 2025 with a glimmer of hope for the future
The best thing I saw in 2025 was La sonnambula
Easily the Met’s new Sonnambula, where cast and production team delivered a gorgeously sung and well thought out concept for a libretto often derided for its simplicity.
By Bel Raggio
Comment
Methinks the lady doth protestant too much
Old pros Gregory Kunde and Pier Luigi Pizzi anchor a new staging of Stiffelio co-produced by three theaters in Emilia-Romagna.